A Life of Worship and Praise

Posted On June 20, 2021

‘When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun’

A couple of weeks ago, during the the early weeks of the third wave of Covid-19 hitting the Western Cape and Stellenbosch specifically, there has been a cluster outbreak of the virus on-campus at Stellenbosch University. 

As a precautionary measure, the Dean and Board of the University made the call that all remaining classes for the semester will move back online, and all events and meetings that happen on campus will have to stop until further notice. That also meant that we, as Hillsong Church Stellenbosch, could not gather as a church on a Sunday.

All of a sudden, the planned celebrations with the rest of the Hillsong Africa church locations on the 13th June, that would have been in person, changed to us joining in with the celebrations with those that gather online for church (something that started due to the lockdown measures introduced in March 2020, and now a means of allowing people to be a part of church).

This sudden change also affected me, as I am a volunteer in the creative technologies team at the Stellenbosch location (creating atmospheres for worship through sound and lights).

I however came to the realisation that our worship is not determined by what we are physically able to bring when we have church in person – rather that our lives are at the very essence of our worship.

Our Global Senior Pastor made the statement a couple of years ago, that “Hillsong church is not built on the gifts & talents of a few, but on the sacrifices of many.”

A life of worship has sacrifice at its very core.

A quick Google Search on the word, “sacrifice”, produces the following results:

1. An act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to a deity
2. Christ giving Himself on the Cross as payment for our sins
3. An act of giving up something for the sake of something else

What becomes apparent from the search results is that there is cost involved in each of the top three definitions of the word “sacrifice”: 

A farmer giving part of his livestock or harvest. A person that does not live off the land gives away some form of earthly possession in exchange for something he can bring as sacrifice. Jesus, who counted the cost and paid with His life for us, so that we can know and be in relationship with God.

For a long time, I was under the impression that praise and worship is just part of church liturgy and that the only person that can serve in that area is the person that leads worship from the platform, whether it is a church choir or a group of vocalists. 

What I however have come to realise in the last couple of years is that something that I considered just being part of church liturgy, or flow of a church service, is actually a lifestyle – not just for worship leaders, the choir or church musicians, but for everyone gathering as the Church.

A further realisation is that our praise and worship is not limited to the musical talent of a few but the authentic sacrificial praise-lives of many.

By this, I am saying that every God-given gift or talent you have in your life, whether it is serving others, the understanding  of complex computer spreadsheets or looking after children, are all your unique praise and worship that you bring to the world.

Like John Newton wrote in the closing verse of the hymnal, Amazing Grace

‘When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun’

(Bringing our unique gifts and talents to the world is no less than when we gave our first breath at birth to the last breath here on earth, and beyond into Eternity.)

We, as the Church, have been given a weighty assignment – with the great possibility that it would cost us everything – comfort, being insulted, being frowned upon or even persecuted, to let the world know of God’s Grace and Mercy for all humanity – and that is through our humble praises.

Because of this, even though for the time being I am unable to create an atmosphere for worship due to us not gathering in person, I still believe that God has reminded me that through this blog entry, and as a whole, the blog itself, I can still live out my praise.

So, may you know, when reading this blog entry, that you have a unique praise that resonates from your life, which is a sacrifice – whose praise aroma reaches God and that is pleasing and acceptable to Him.